XFX 7850... Is 1gb ok for 1280x1024?

[Jechu182]

Hi guys, im planning on buying an XFX 7850 1GB. I think its a great value card, its kinda cheap here in Argentina. But what worries me is the 1GB memory...

 

Im not planning on buying a new monitor any time soon, I have a good 1280x1024 LCD. Is 1GB enough for gaming at this resolution? Its just that I dont want to waste money buying the 2GB version when I probably wont need that much memory.

 

If anyone games at this resolution can you tell me if its enough? Thanks in advance!

[DyGr00339]

I'd get the 2gb

[G.Freeman]

"When it comes to gaming performance the XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Core Edition did better than expected with a screen resolution of 1920x1080! We were able to easily play all the current game titles at 1080p with the image quality settings cranked up!"  http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2048/13/

 

 

"in Battlefield 3 at 1,920 x 1,080, the MSI HD 7850 1GB was actually able to outperform the 2GB version thanks to its factory overclock, albeit by a single frame per second on the minimum frame rate. This suggests that the 2GB's extra 1GB of GDDR5 is all but useless at this resolution." http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2012/11/05/msi-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-review/10

 

"We have to admit this was a bit of a surprise. We wanted to get the 1GB version of the HD 7850 to test it against the HD 7770 more than anything else - assuming this would be the card it'd be going up against. After all, the 2GB frame buffer of the stock HD 7850 must be partly responsible for its impressive showing at hi-res, right? And that's putting post-processing such as anti-aliasing in the mix.

How wrong we were. It seems that the bottleneck to the Pitcairn Pro's performance is not the memory at all - the GPU itself bottlenecks performance well before the memory gets anywhere near making things crawl.

What does that mean though? Well, it means the 1GB version of the HD 7850, especially the slightly overclocked version supplied by MSI, is more than able to keep pace with the stock 2GB version of the Pitcairn Pro card." http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/msi-hd-7850-1gb-1129390/review

[G.Freeman]

I'd get the 2gb

waste of money.

[DyGr00339]

It also depends on how much Vram the game actually uses some games the 1gb card is perfect others you may want the 2gb in simcity if you play for a while and many many many cars and people are running around my GPU freezes up.

[Jechu182]

Are you for real ? LOL

 

"When it comes to gaming performance the XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Core Edition did better than expected with a screen resolution of 1920x1080! We were able to easily play all the current game titles at 1080p with the image quality settings cranked up!"  http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2048/13/

 

 

"in Battlefield 3 at 1,920 x 1,080, the MSI HD 7850 1GB was actually able to outperform the 2GB version thanks to its factory overclock, albeit by a single frame per second on the minimum frame rate. This suggests that the 2GB's extra 1GB of GDDR5 is all but useless at this resolution." http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2012/11/05/msi-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-review/10

 

"We have to admit this was a bit of a surprise. We wanted to get the 1GB version of the HD 7850 to test it against the HD 7770 more than anything else - assuming this would be the card it'd be going up against. After all, the 2GB frame buffer of the stock HD 7850 must be partly responsible for its impressive showing at hi-res, right? And that's putting post-processing such as anti-aliasing in the mix.

How wrong we were. It seems that the bottleneck to the Pitcairn Pro's performance is not the memory at all - the GPU itself bottlenecks performance well before the memory gets anywhere near making things crawl.

What does that mean though? Well, it means the 1GB version of the HD 7850, especially the slightly overclocked version supplied by MSI, is more than able to keep pace with the stock 2GB version of the Pitcairn Pro card." http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/msi-hd-7850-1gb-1129390/review

Awesome! I missed those reviews! I guess ill definitely go with the 1GB! Thanks!

 

 

 

It also depends on how much Vram the game actually uses some games the 1gb card is perfect others you may want the 2gb in simcity if you play for a while and many many many cars and people are running around my GPU freezes up.

Yeah, those games where there is a lot of action going on screen. But I dont really play that much RTS games, although I really enjoyed Sim city 4 and AOE. I guess I will have to lower the resolution just a bit on those games when I get the video card! Thanks!

[Brandonsr]

at that resolution get the 1GB card. You will have no problems running games at max settings.

[G.Freeman]

It also depends on how much Vram the game actually uses some games the 1gb card is perfect others you may want the 2gb in simcity if you play for a while and many many many cars and people are running around my GPU freezes up.

 

The GPU on that low of a card can't use more than 1gb of Vram as it's not powerful enough.

[GamerDude]

Well, if the OP doesn't intend to upgrade his monitor to a 1080P one, and that he'd only be gaming @1280x1024 monitor, then the HD7850 1GB would be just fine.

[G.Freeman]

Well, if the OP doesn't intend to upgrade his monitor to a 1080P one, and that he'd only be gaming @1280x1024 monitor, then the HD7850 1GB would be just fine.

I have a 1GB 7850 and it's boss. It gets the same framerates as the 2gb version.

[Nit3Rid3R]

You will be perfectly fine with a 1GB card. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Really enjoyed Sim city 4 and AOE. I guess I will have to lower the resolution just a bit on those games when I get the video card! Thanks!

Tis doubtful you'll have to...

You'll be fine for a long time at that resolution and graphics card. even 1080p will see you right for a while if you get a monitor. Sure, you wont have the best Antialiasing options enabled, but all games will run with acceptable framerates if you notch down a thing or two when needed.

[TheNorthHarrier]

1gb should be fine for that resolution. I have 7850 2gb and it is a boss! Either way I have used my friends 1gb and its kinda boss too. Good card. If you have the money 2gb is always bettter if not 1gb will due. 

[G.Freeman]

Tis doubtful you'll have to...

You'll be fine for a long time at that resolution and graphics card. even 1080p will see you right for a while if you get a monitor. Sure, you wont have the best Antialiasing options enabled, but all games will run with acceptable framerates if you notch down a thing or two when needed.

LOL no kidding. Even with high level AA the HD 7850 does very well. Remember the 256bit bus.

[G.Freeman]

1gb should be fine for that resolution. I have 7850 2gb and it is a boss! Either way I have used my friends 1gb and its kinda boss too. Good card. If you have the money 2gb is always bettter if not 1gb will due. 

Read above 1GB 7850 is as fast as 2gb 7850. OC 1gb 7850 is faster than 2GB 7850 in BF3.

[TheNorthHarrier]

Read above 1GB 7850 is as fast as 2gb 7850. OC 1gb 7850 is faster than 2GB 7850 in BF3.

Thats fine, As I said 1gb is great for that resolution although get a bigger monitor and two will come in handy. Either way 1gb is enough. 

[Lukiose]

At that resolution 1gb is sufficient. If you wanted to game at higher resolutions of 1080p and above i wouldn't recommend a 7850 in the first place, so don't waste money on the 2gb, grab the 1gb and save up for a better card/monitor in the future

[G.Freeman]

Thats fine, As I said 1gb is great for that resolution although get a bigger monitor and two will come in handy. Either way 1gb is enough. 

No that's a misconception read about 1GB 7850 vs 2GB 7850 @ 1080P.

 

"When it comes to gaming performance the XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Core Edition did better than expected with a screen resolution of 1920x1080! We were able to easily play all the current game titles at 1080p with the image quality settings cranked up!"  http://www.legitrevi...rticle/2048/13/

 

 

"in Battlefield 3 at 1,920 x 1,080, the MSI HD 7850 1GB was actually able to outperform the 2GB version thanks to its factory overclock, albeit by a single frame per second on the minimum frame rate. This suggests that the 2GB's extra 1GB of GDDR5 is all but useless at this resolution." http://www.bit-tech....0-1gb-review/10

 

"We have to admit this was a bit of a surprise. We wanted to get the 1GB version of the HD 7850 to test it against the HD 7770 more than anything else - assuming this would be the card it'd be going up against. After all, the 2GB frame buffer of the stock HD 7850 must be partly responsible for its impressive showing at hi-res, right? And that's putting post-processing such as anti-aliasing in the mix.

How wrong we were. It seems that the bottleneck to the Pitcairn Pro's performance is not the memory at all - the GPU itself bottlenecks performance well before the memory gets anywhere near making things crawl.

What does that mean though? Well, it means the 1GB version of the HD 7850, especially the slightly overclocked version supplied by MSI, is more than able to keep pace with the stock 2GB version of the Pitcairn Pro card." http://www.techradar...-1129390/review

[TheNorthHarrier]

If you have a resolution such as 2560 x 1600 you need 2GB of VRAM for good frame rate. For any thing 1920 x 1080 or below 1gb is fine. all there is to it. It does have a faster clock speed that why it is better for lower resualtion at 2560 x1600 a 2gb card would kick its butt. That is what I meant. If he upgraded his monitor and used a Higher resolution above 1920 x 1080 he would benefit from 2gb VRAM. 

[G.Freeman]

If you have a resolution such as 2560 x 1600 you need 2GB of VRAM for good frame rate. For any thing 1920 x 1080 or below 1gb is fine. all there is to it. It does have a faster clock speed that why it is better for lower resualtion at 2560 x1600 a 2gb card would kick its butt. That is what I meant. If he upgraded his monitor and used a Higher resolution above 1920 x 1080 he would benefit from 2gb VRAM. 

I think 2560x1440 would kick any HD 7850s butt because at that point for any graphically intense game the GPU core would not longer be able to keep up the framerates to playable levels let alone make use of a wide frame buffer.

[TheNorthHarrier]

I think 2560x1440 would kick any HD 7850s butt because at that point for any graphically intense game the GPU core would not longer be able to keep up the framerates to playable levels let alone make use of a wide frame buffer.

Yupm I did mean, 2560 x 1440 :-). I have no problem playing that resolution on medium to high setting with my 2gb model, I have it overclocked to 1100 MHz

[david cassar]

For that resoultion 1gb is going to be enough unless you are going to be running skyrim with 4k textures plus 40 mods.

[PCBudgetSolutions]

A bit of false information here I want to help dissolve.  At 1280x1024, 1GB is all you need, but at 1080p, 2GB is going to be needed especially in newer games.  Battlefield 3 @ 1080p with everything maxed especially AA an texture resolution can eat up about 1.5Gb of Vram.  An HD 7850 overclocked at 1GB with a CPU bottleneck may show better results than a stock HD 7850 2GB.  However, I took a basic power color HD 7850 2GB set it to max OC 1050/1450 and it plays Crysis 3 at 1080p pretty damn well.

[infernowheels]

Wow, that's my old Screen Resolution.. I miss 4:3 a lot...

 

@Topic: Yeah, 1GB is enough. Just know that there can be limitations sometimes to some super high-res game textures.

[G.Freeman]

A bit of false information here Battlefield 3 @ 1080p with everything maxed especially AA an texture resolution can eat up about 1.5Gb of Vram.  An HD 7850 overclocked at 1GB with a CPU bottleneck may show better results than a stock HD 7850 2GB. 

 

Might want to read some posts next time before posting.

 

"in Battlefield 3 at 1,920 x 1,080, the MSI HD 7850 1GB was actually able to outperform the 2GB version thanks to its factory overclock, albeit by a single frame per second on the minimum frame rate. This suggests that the 2GB's extra 1GB of GDDR5 is all but useless at this resolution." http://www.bit-tech....0-1gb-review/10